AP English Literature and Composition Vocabulary

Up to 105 literarily important words the be prepared for the AP exam in May

Allegory

A poetic Narrative/prose where the characters, behavior, and even the setting demonstrate multiple levels of meaning and significance.

Alliteration

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pickles; an __________ is made up of the sequential repetition of similar initial sounds, usually in applied to consonants

Allusion

A reference to a literary or historical, person, place.

Anapestic

a metrical foot in poetry that has two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed. “twas the NIGHT before CHRISTmas”, “ALL through the HOUSE, not a CREATure was STIRing, not even a MOUSE

Anecdote

A short= story, usually with a side message and theme/moral behind it.

Antagonist

any force that is in opposition to the main character/protagonist.

Apostrophe

An angry lover that might scream at the ocean in despair. An address or invocation to something that is intimate.

Archetype

recurrent designs, patterns of actions, character types, themes, or images which are identifiable in a wide range of literature.

Assonance

A repetition of identical vowel sounds,” Hear the mellow wedding bells”

Attitude

the sense expressed by the tone of a voice and/or the mood of a piece of writing; the feelings the author holds towards his subject.

Ballad

A narrative poem, usually written intended to be sung - Characterized by its repetition and refrain

Ballad Stanza

Common stanza form, consisting of a quatrain that alternates from four beat - three beats lines

Blank Verse

Verse Form that resembles common speech, blank consists of unrhymed lines on iambic pentameter - five beats

Caesura

a pause in a line of verse, indicated by natural speech patterns rather than due to specific metricla patterns. “Im nobody! ll Who are you?

Caricature

A depiction in which a character’s characteristics or features are so deliberately exaggerated to be rendered as absurd. - often used in political cartoons “Mr. Chadband is a large yellow man, with a fat smile”

Colloquial

words or phrases that are not literary, ones used in casual conversation

Conceit

A comparison of two unlikely things that is drawn out with in literature, in particular an extended metaphor on a poem.

Connotation

What is suggested by a word, other than what it explicitly describes, often referred to the implied meaning of a word

Consonance

Repetition of of a sequence of two or more consonants, but with a change in the intervening vowels

Pitter - Patter - Pish - Posh

Couplet

Two rhyming lines of iambic pentameter (5 stresses) that together present a single idea or connection.

Dactylic

Metrical foot (beat/Stress) in poetry that consists of two unstressed syllables followed by one unstressed syllable

EV-ERYwhere, EV-ERYwhere, CHRIST-MAS toNIGHT

Denotation

A direct and specific meaning, often referred to as the dictionary meaning of a word

Dialect

The language and speech idiosyncrasies (distinctive or peculiar behavior or
way of being) of a specific area, region, or group of people

Diction

the specific word choice an author uses to persuade or convey tone, purpose, or effect. For example, Edgar Allan Poe said, "I hadn't so much forgot as I couldn't bring myself to remember." This has far more impact on the reader than saying "I chose not to remember."

Dramatic Monologue

a monologue (speech) set in a specific situation and spoken to an imaginary audience. Another term for this could be soliloquy

Elegy

a poetic lament (passionate expression of grief/sorrow) upon the death of a
particular person, usually ending in consolation (providing comfort for those who have
suffered)

Enjambment

the continuation of a sentence from one line of poem to the next. (No punctuation at the end of a line of poetry)

Epic

a poem that celebrates, in a continuous narrative, the achievements of mighty heroes and heroines, often concerned with the founding of a nation or developing of a culture; it uses elevated (formal) language and grand, high style

Exposition

the part of the narrative structure that sets the scene, introduce and identifies characters, and establishes the situation at the beginning of story or play.

Extended Metaphor

a detailed and complex metaphor that extends over a long section of a work, also known as conceit

Fable

a legend or a short moral story often using animals as characters. Aesop is the best-known teller of fables, such as the tortoise and the hare. Animal Farm by George Orwell is a political fable

Falling Action

the part of plot structure in which the complications of the rising action are untangled. This is also known as the denouement

Farce

a play or scene in a play or book that is characterized by wild antics and often slapstick / physical humor. Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream is filled with farce. So is The Three Stooges. The more contemporary Catch-22 uses farce as did Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail

Foreshadowing

to hint at or to present an indication of the future beforehand. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor creating his monster is heavily foreshadowed at the beginning of the novel

Formal Diction

language that is lofty, dignified, and impersonal. Such diction is often used in narrative epic poetry, like the creature's language in Frankenstein

Flashback

retrospection, where an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronology of the narrative. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is written as a flashback to specific events that took place in the adult narrator's childhood

Free Verse

poetry that is characterized by varying line lengths, lack of traditional meter, and non-rhyming lines. Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass uses free verse. The "To be or not to be" soliloquy from Hamlet is another example

Genre

a type or class of literature such as epic poetry, narrative poetry, or gothic literature

Hyperbole

overstatement characterized by exaggerated language. "I'm starving!" is usually hyperbole

Iambic

a metrical foot (beat/stress) in poetry that consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Often iambs are used in sets of five called iambic pentameter. All of Shakespeare's sonnets are written in iambic pentameter: "Shall I comPARE thee TO a SUMmer's DAY? / thou ART more LOVely AND more TEMPeRATE."

Imagery

broadly defined, any sensory detail in a work, more narrowly, the use of
figurative language to evoke a feeling, to call to mind an idea, or to describe an object. Imagery involves any or all 5 senses

Informal Diction

language that is not as lofty or impersonal as formal diction; similar
to everyday speech. Such diction might include such words as "ok", "bye", "huh?", "hey", and "yeah"

In medias res

"in the midst of things"; refers to opening a story in the middle of the
action, necessitating filling in past details by exposition or flashback

Irony

a situation or statement characterized by significant difference between what is
expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant. Irony is often
humorous, and sometimes sarcastic when it uses words to imply the opposite of what they normally mean. It is also a form of humor in which the outcome is the opposite of what was expected

Jargon

specialized or technical language of a trade, profession, or similar group. The
computer industry, for example, has introduced much jargon into our vocabulary.
Words such as geek, crash, and interface are all examples of

Juxtaposition

the location of one thing as being adjacent or juxtaposed with another.
This placing of two items or ideas side by side creates a certain effect, reveals an
attitude, or accomplishes some purpose of the writer. In Frankenstein, Victor's darkness and selfishness is juxtaposed by Elizabeth's lightness and serene innocence

Limited POV

a perspective confined to a single character, whether a first person or a third person; the reader cannot know for sure what is going on in the minds of other characters.

Litotes

a figure of speech that emphasizes its subject by conscious
understatement. For example, the understated "not bad" as a comment about
something especially well done. George Orwell wrote, "Last week I saw a woman flayed and you would hardly believe how much it altered her person for the worse." (If you're not sure what flayed is, look it up.)

Loose sentence

a sentence grammatically complete, and usually stating its main idea,
before the end

Lyric

originally designated poems meant to be sung to the accompaniment of a lyre (a
string instrument); now any short poem in which the speaker expresses intense
personal emotion rather than describing a narrative or dramatic situation. The sonnet and ode are two types of lyric poetry

Message

a misleading term for theme; the central idea or statement of a story, or area of inquiry or explanation; misleading because it suggests a simple, packaged statement that pre-exists and for the simple communication of which the story is written

Metaphor

an implicit comparison or identification of one thing with another unlike
itself without the use of "like" or "as". For example, Romeo says, "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks! / It is the east, and Juliet is the sun."

Meter

the more or less regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. This is determined by the kind of "foot" (iambic or dactylic, for example) and by the number of feet (stresses) per line (5 stresses = pentameter, 6 stresses = hexameter).

Mood

a feeling or ambiance resulting from the tone of a piece as well as the
writer/narrator's attitude and point of view. This effect is fabricated through
descriptions of feelings or objects that establish a certain feeling. For example, in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, gothic literature elements create a dark, gloomy ____. Similarly, the creature's story evokes sympathy from the reader.

Motif

a recurrent device, formula, or situation that often serves as a signal
for the appearance of a character or event. For example, in The Great Gatsby, the recurring image, or motif, of the color green is found throughout the novel

Narrative Structure

A textual organization based on sequences of connected events,
usually presented in a straightforward, chronological framework

Narrator

the character who “tells” the story, or in poetry, the persona

Occasional poem

a poem written about or for a specific occasion, public or private.
An epithalamium is a wedding poem, for example

Ode

a lyric poem that is somewhat serious in subject and treatment, elevated in style, and sometimes uses elaborate stanzas structure, which is often patterned in sets of three. Odes are written to praise and exalt a person, characteristic, quality, or object.

Omniscient point of view

Also called unlimited focus: a perspective that can be seen
from one character's view, then another's, then another's or can be moved in or out of the mind of any character at any time. The reader has access to the perceptions and thoughts of all the characters in the story

Onomatopoeia

a word capturing or approximating the sound of what it describes;
"buzz" is a good example. The purpose of these words is to make a passage more effective for the reader or listener

Overstatement

exaggerated language, also called hyperbole

Oxymoron

a figure of speech that combines two apparently contradictory elements,
sometimes resulting in a humorous image or statement: "jumbo shrimp" and "deafening silence" are a couple of examples.

Parable

a short fiction that illustrates an explicit moral lesson through the use of
analogy. Many parables can be found in the Bible such as the stories of "The Prodigal Son" or "The Loaves and Fishes."

Paradox

a statement that seems contradictory but may actually be true. A popular
paradox from the 1960s was when war protesters would "fight for peace"

Parallel Structure

the use of similar forms in writing for nouns, verbs, phrases, or
thoughts; for example, "Jane likes reading, writing, and skiing

Parody

a work that imitates another work for comic effect by exaggerating the style
and changing the content of the original. In contemporary music, for example, Weird Al Yankovic has made his fortune writing parodies of popular songs. Additionally, Scary Movie 1, 2, and 3, which are parodies of scary movies in general

Pastoral

a work (also called an eclogue, a bucolic, or an idyll) that describes the simple life of country folk, usually shepherds who live in a timeless, painless (and sheepless) life in a world full of beauty, music, and love. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights and examples of pastoral literature

Periodic Sentence

a sentence which is not grammatically complete until the end. For
example, "The child, who looked as if she were being chased by demons, ran."

Persona

the voice or figure of the author who tells and structures the story and who
may or may not share the values of the actual author. Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby is such a _______

personification

treating an abstraction or nonhuman object as if it were a person by
endowing it with human qualities. William Wordsworth speaks of the stars as "Tossing their heads in sprightly dance"

Petrarchan sonnet

also called Italian sonnet: a sonnet form that divides the poem into
one section of eight lines (octave) and a second section of six lines (sestet), usually following the abba abba cde cde rhyme scheme, though the sestet's rhyme scheme varies

Plot

the arrangement of the narration based on the cause-effect relationship of the events.

Protagonist

the main character in a work, who may or may not be heroic. For example,
Guy Montag is the protagonist in Fahrenheit 451

Quatrain

a poetic stanza of four lines

Realism

the practice in literature of attempting to describe nature and life without
idealization and with attention to detail. Henry James and Mark Twain are examples of authors in this school of thought

Refrain

a repeated stanza or line(s) in a poem or song. In the song The Battle Hymn of the Republic, the refrain (chorus), repeats "Glory, glory hallelujah"

Rising Action

The development of action in a work, usually at the beginning. The first
part of plot structure

Rhetorical question

A question that is asked simply for stylistic effect and is not
expected to be answered

Rhyme

The repetition of the same or similar sounds, most often at the ends of lines

Rhythm

the pattern of weak and strong (stressed and unstressed) elements in the flow of speech

Sarcasm

a form of verbal irony in which apparent praise is actually harshly or bitterly
critical. For example, if a teacher says to a student who sneaks into class significantly late, "Nice of you to join us today," the teacher is being ____”

Satire

a literary work that holds up human failings to ridicule and express disapproval. Current examples include shows like Saturday Night Live and The Colbert Report. Lots of memes are pretty ______, too

Scansion

the analysis of verse (poetry) to show its meter (such as anapestic, dactylic, etc.)

Setting

the time and place of the action in a story, poem, or play. George Lucas' Star Wars opens by telling us that it was "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away."

Shakespearean Sonnet

also called an English sonnet: a sonnet form that divides the
poem into three units of four lines each and a final unit of two lines,
usually abab cdcd efef gg

Shaped Verse

another name for concrete poetry: poetry that is shaped to look like an
object. John Hollander's "A State of Nature" is shaped to look like New York State.

Simile

a direct, explicit comparison of one thing to another, usually using the
words like or as to draw the connection. Charles Dickens wrote, "There was a steamy mist in all the hollows, and it had roared in its forlornness up the hill, like any evil spirit."

Soliloquy

a monologue in which the character in a play is alone and speaking only to
himself or herself. A famous example is Hamlet's "to be or not to be" speech.

Speaker

the person, not necessarily the author, who is the voice of a poem

Stanza

a section of a poem marked by extra line spacing. Stanzas can be identified by the number of their lines:
Couplet = 2 lines
Tercet = 3 lines
Quatrain = 4 lines
Cinquain = 5 lines
Sestet = 6 lines
Heptastich (wow, what a fun word) = seven lines
Octave = 8 lines

Stereotype

a characterization based on conscious or unconscious assumptions that
some one aspect, such as gender, age, ethnic or national identity, religion, occupation, marital status, and so on, are predictably accompanied by certain character traits, actions, even values. In literature, stereotyped or stock characters are often used to fulfill a particular purpose of the author. For instance, the wicked witch in "Snow White" is a stereotyped character

Stock Character

one who appears in a number of stories or plays, such as the cruel
stepmother, the femme fatale, etc.

Structure

the organization of arrangement of the various elements in a work

Style

a distinctive manner of expression; each author's ____ is expressed through his or her writing choices. It is a writer's typical way of writing. ____ includes word choice, tone, degree of formality, figurative language, rhythm, grammar, structure, sentence length, organization, and every other feature of a writer's use of language. For example, Hemingway wrote primarily with short, simple sentences while Joseph Conrad wrote
with long, rambling sentences

Symbolism

a person, place, thing, event, or pattern in a literary work that designates
itself and at the same time figuratively stands for something else. Often the thing or idea represented is more abstract or general than the symbol, which is more concrete and particular. In The Great Gatsby, the green light is symbolic. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the mockingbird is symbolic

Syntax

the way words are put together to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. _____ is sentence structure and how it influences the way the reader receives a particular piece of writing

Terza rima

a verse form consisting of three line stanzas in which the second line of
each rhymes with the first and third of the next.

Theme

a generalized, abstract paraphrase of the inferred central or dominant idea or concern of a work

Tone

the attitude a literary work takes toward its subject and theme, based on
stylistic devices employed by the writer. _____ reflects the narrator's attitude